United States and Canada
The face is green lightly marked with black and there is a dark triangle on top of the frons. The pterostigma is brown and the costa is green. The abdomen is mostly brown with green on segments 1-2 and a distinctive white area on the postlateral rim of segment 1. Large green basal spots, blue in young individuals, are present on segments 3-6, giving the abdomen a ringed appearance.
Size: Total length: 70-74 mm; abdomen: 48-54 mm; hindwing: 48-52 mm.
Similar Species (south-central US): This tropical species is similar to Common Green Darner (A. junius). The dark mark on top of the frons, however, is triangular rather than circular and the abdomen looks distinctly ringed rather than striped. Comet Darner (A. longipes) is an all red abdomen.
Habitat: Tropical ponds and lakes with weeds including brackish pools.
Natural History: Breeding populations of this species in North America are apparently restricted to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Curt Williams (pers. comm. ) recently, August 1998, photographed a purple martin feeding a single female Amazon Darner to her young nestlings in his back yard in Marlin, Texas. This species actively feeds up until dark. Females lay eggs in vegetation that is either submerged or a short distance above the water line.
Distribution: Florida, Louisiana and Texas in the U.S. southward through Mexico to Puerto Rico and Argentina.
Source: Abbott, J.C. 2006-2010. OdonataCentral: An online resource for the distribution and identification of Odonata. Available at OdonataCentral.
Edited by Drew Weber (9/24/2015).
